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Values and Technology: George Grant and our Present Possibilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Peter C. Emberley
Affiliation:
Carleton University

Abstract

The article is an effort to think through the relation between the language of values, values education, and technology. It links Nietzsche's account of nihilism as the cognitive effort to create the illusion of adaptation and mastery of what is contingent and spontaneous and the process by which these life-denying values cause themselves to be devalued with a consideration of how psychology is turned to adjusting individuals and populations to the efficient securing of technological processes. George Grant's writings are employed as the vehicle of access to these reflections.

Résumé

L'article tente d'explorer la relation qui existe entre le discours des valeurs, l'apprentissage aux valeurs et la technologie. II tente de lier ce que Nietzsche entendait par le nihilisme, c'est-à-dire l'effort cognitif cherchant à creér l'illusion d'adaptation et de maîtrise de ce qui est contingent et spontané et le processus par lequel ces valeurs contraignantes se dévaluent elles-mêmes, en considerant la façon par laquelle la psychologie tente d'adapter les individus et les populations à la reproduction efficace des processus technologiques. Les écrits de George Grant servent à comprendre ces réflexions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 1988

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References

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2 Ibid.

3 There are essentially four models of values education being used in North America today, although there are numerous variations. The dominant four are “values analysis” (for example, Association of Values Education and Research, University of British Columbia), “Kohlberg's values development,” “values reflection” (for example, Clive Beck, Ontario Institute of Education), and “values clarification.” See also, Superka, Douglas et al., Values Education Sourcebook: Conceptual Approaches, Materials Analyses, and an Annotated Bibliography (Boulder, Colorado: Social Science Education Consortium and ERIC/Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, 1976)Google Scholar and Barrs, S. et al., Values Education: A Resource Booklet (Toronto: Professional Development Committee of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, 1975).Google Scholar

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